‘Bandaid’ for Liscannor sewage ‘geyser’

Work on a wastewater treatment plant at Liscannor will not begin until 2017, Irish Water confirmed this week however the utility said it had replaced an outfall pipe in the North Clare village, a move described as a “Bandaid” by Patrick Blake of the Liscannor Harbour Amenity Organisation.

“We are very disappointed in Liscannor. €68,000 has been wasted in producing another pipe to allow the sewage to flow directly into Liscannor Bay. We recognise that they already have started to do work but we feel, at the moment this, is only a Bandaid treatment. We want to stop sewage going in to Liscannor Bay,” Mr Blake stated.

The popular seaside village made national headlines back in August when a ‘geyser’ of sewage was spotted gushing from a pipe there.

The people of Liscannor have sought a sewage treatment system for the past two decades.

This study was to “look at possible solutions for the upgrade of wastewater infrastructure” but a completion date for “any upgrade works will depend on the outcome of the study”.

However this week, Irish Water released a statement saying it had “spent €68,000 replacing the wastewater outfall pipe at Liscannor, which will prevent the discharge of wastewater to the beach area in Liscannor. The work on replacing this 140m long outfall pipeline was completed in early December”.
It added that it had appointed a consultant to carry out an “Untreated Agglomerations Study, which will provide an assessment and outline design of optimum solutions at 18 agglomerations where there is currently no wastewater treatment”.

“Liscannor is included in this study, which is scheduled to be completed in Q2 2016,” a spokesperson for Irish Water stated, adding, “When the study is complete, a full programme for the delivery of the required works at Liscannor will be identified, although following detailed design, planning and procurement, it is unlikely that works will commence before early 2017”.

Mr Blake said people in the village welcome the prospect of a treatment plant and “look forward to their survey in 2016 and hope they will recognise that Liscannor has a serious problem and build the treatment plant as soon as possible”.

Mr Blake pointed out that the area depends on tourists with the Wild Atlantic Way and the Cliffs of Moher and “to promote our area properly and it must be clean”.

“Once Irish Water gives us a guarantee that they will finish it properly and once they recognise that Liscannor Bay is not a dumping hole for sewage we will accept that and deal with we will be happy. We accept that they have now recognised there is a serious problem here and we hope they continue to do so and work to solve the problem,” he concluded.